“I have reached the place that I had always wanted to reach,” Krakovsky said.

At 38 years old, Krakovsky became the first in her family to go to college. She earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in fine arts.

But as a single mother, she was forced to work a series of odd jobs and put her artwork aside.

Now, after 50 years as a frustrated artist, some of her recent work is on display at the Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn. Krakovsky said she’s put her heart and soul into her artwork and can’t wait for people to see it.

“I have something in my old age to get up for!” Krakovsky joked.

Krakovsky’s daughter said she’s proud of her mother for sticking with her passion.

“It’s a triumph for her, it’s also an inspiration because of her age for others,” Chere Krakovsky told Finch.

It takes Dorothy between 10 days and three weeks to create each of her works. Everything on display has been created in the past two years.

“She’s got some real physical problems and yet in the work itself, there’s so much energy that’s coming out of it that it’s obviously coming from a place of great spirit,” Jimmy Greenfield, the owner of Soapbox Gallery, said.

Krakovsky uses acrylic paint because she has emphysema and can’t breathe oil-based paints.

She’s only five feet tall but told finch that stretching to work on a six-foot canvas is good for her arthritis.

Krakovsky offered some advice to frustrated artists regardless of their age or health.

“If a 90-year-old whatever can do it, you can do it. Whatever it is, writing, music, art, those are the things that keep the soul alive,” she told Finch.

Krakovsky’s work is on display now through march 9th.

Admission to her show at the Soapbox Gallery in Prospect Heights is free. For more information on the show, click here.